Cartridge-clip.



Patented July 30, l90l. L. F. BRUCE.

CARTRIDGE CLIP.

(Application filed Oct. 11.- 1900.)

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LUCIEN' F. BRUCE, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

CARTRIDGE-CLIP.

$PECIFICATION formingpart Of Letters Patent N0. 679,412, dated July 30, 1901.

Application filed October 11, 1900. Serial No. 32,742. (No model.) 7

T0 at whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, LUCIEN F. BRUCE, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cartridge-Clips, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in cartridge-clips for firearms, more especially militarymagazineguns.

The object of the invention is to provide an improved clip for holding a sufficient number of cartridges to charge the magazine of the firearm in such manner that when the cartridges are placed and engaged in the clip they may not in the ordinary course of events become detached or disengaged from the clip, because of being locked therein, and so that, for instance, should the cartridge-filled clip be accidentally dropped none of the cartridges could become detached, and yet so that when the clip is placed in engagement with the firearm in the ordinary way to charge the latter the cartridge looking or restraining device automatically assumes a position of disengagement relatively to the rims of the car tridges, whereby they may readily be forced from the clip into the magazine.

The invention consists in a cartridge-clip having constructions and comprising novel features and capabilities all substantially as hereinafter fully described, and set forth in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation, partially in section, of. a portion of a military rifle of the well-known bolt type, showing the improved clip as in its place of engagement with the gun to permit the forcing of the cartridges from the clip into the magazine. Fig. 2 is a partial plan view of Fig. 1, the clip being shown in horizontal cross-section as taken on line 2 2, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the clip. Figs. 4 and 5 are perspective views of the metallic parts from which the clip is composed. Fig. 6 is a plan or end view of the clip, showing the cartridge-rimengaging device thereof as in its position of disengagement, while Fig. 7 is a similar view, showing, however, the rim-engaging device as in its position of disengagement.

The clip consists of a sheet-metal body or holder A of a shallow trough shape in crosssection, having the margins of the trough sides inturned to constitute the continuous opposite parallel lips (I. to engage the rims b of the cartridges in the ordinary manner, and spring-reacting lips or members 01 at the ends of the clip, which normally have their positions across the channel to intercept the rims of the cartidges in the clip and to prevent their being forced out, which lips are capable of assuming positions of cartridge-rim disengagement and have abutment members 6, through means of which when the clip is placed in the firearm one of such members by contact against a portion of the arm will crowd the spring-carried lip d to such position that the lip ceases to remain an impediment to the displacement of the cartridges from the clips.

The holder A at its diagonally opposite corners is recessed, as indicated at f, for the accommodation of the aforesaid lip d and the abutment member e, so that these parts may have their location within the length of the holder. The said members (1 and e are comprised as integrallyformed portions of a spring-plate B, formed separately from the holder A, as more clearly shown in Figs. 3 and 5. This spring-plate, having a length about the same as the length of the holder, is slitted from its opposite ends, as indicated at g, whereby the diagonally opposite lip-carrying spring-tongues h h are produced, the same having their deflections toward the back of the clip, and whereby the second set of spring-tongues t c' are produced, which have their deflection forwardly and oppo sitely from those of the lip-carrying tongues, the said tongues t 1' having limiting engagements on the inner sides of the marginal lips or a of the trough-shaped holder of the clip body A.

Each diagonally opposite engagement lip d is constituted by a transverse earj, struck up as one with the sheet spring-plate B, the same being forwardly or inwardly bent twice at right angles, so that the extremity which constitutes the lip 61 has normally its position as shown in Figs. 3 and 6-that is, across the channel formed within the opposite parallel lips a a of the holder A and within which channel the heads or rims of the cartridges are engaged in the usual manner.

Each of the abutment members 6 is constituted by the extremity of the tongue h, which is outwardly and rearwardly bent or curled, so as to have normally a position beyond the plane or outside of the back of the holder A.

While the tongues h it have by reason of their rearward reactions positions for keeping the parts at and e at or to the rear of the back of the holder, the tongues it, exerting a reaction in the opposite direction, serve when the cartridges are in place in the clip, by pressure against the heads thereof, to prevent rattling or shaking of the cartridges relatively to the lips a a on the holder.

The formation of the clip so that the one end portion is the counterpart of the diagonally opposite portion permits the clip, with the cartridges in engagement therewith to be brought into relation to the firearm with either end up, it.only being necessary that the clip be held with its open front side foremost.

To charge the clip, it is only necessary to press the upper end abutment e by the thumb in a forward direction, so that the adjacent lip d assumes the position shown in Fig. 7, leaving the mouth of the channel for the heads of the cartridges unobstructed. Then after the five or several cartridges, in number corresponding to the capacity of the clip, have been placed therein one after another until the clip is full-the cartridges being restrained against the displacement at the lower end of the clip by the lip (1 having its normal position of obstruction thereat-the release of the. pressure at the extremity of the spring-tongue permits the lip d to have the position of engagement with the rim of the outer cartridge by resuming its position across the mouth of the channel in the holder, as shown in Fig. 6.

In military magazine-rifles of the bolt type the clip, with the several cartridges, is engaged in a socket w for the clip at the rear of the entrance-opening 50 in the frame of the arm, through which the cartridges are to be forced downwardly into the magazine. The bolt to of the arm being withdrawn rearwardly its forward end or some forward end equipment thereof-as, for instance, the extractor g has a position coincident with the rear wall of the said socket w and the back of the clip, so that the abutment member e by contacting against the end of the bolt or the extractor carried thereby is crowded forwardly to the position shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and thus the act of placing the clip in the gun by bringin g the rearwardly-located movable abutment of the clip against some appropriate part of the firearm causes the displacement of the bottom cartridge-limiting lip cl from its position of obstruction for the downward passage of the cartridges from the clip into the magazine. The bosses m m on the opposite sides of the socket a: constitute rockers or fulcra on which, after the clip has been discharged of its cartridges and the bolt is forwardly forced, the clip as a whole will he swung, its lower end forwardly and upwardly and its rear end rearwardly and downwardly until the clip is crowded to a position about horizontally over the gun-frame and becomes automatically disengaged therewith on the closing of the bolt.

The clip having all the features and capabilities described and explained consists of but the two separately formed and combined parts shown in Figs. 4 and 5, manifestly very cheap of production and such as are not liable to derangement in transportation or use.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A cartridge-clip comprising the holder A having the lips a it, within which is a way for the engagement therein of the cartridgeheads, provided at its opposite ends with rear wardly-reacting spring-tongues h 71 each having a lip the location of which is across the way for the cartridge-heads, and each tongue it having an abutment member extended to the rear of the clip, and a diagonally opposite pair of spring-tongues i *6 having a forward reaction marginally limited by the inner edges of said lips a a, substantially as described.

2. A cartridge-clip consisting of a holder A having a way for the engagement, therein, of the cartridge-heads, and having at its ends diagonally oppositely located recesses f, and the spring-plate B having the slits extended substantially longitudinally from its opposite ends whereby are formed rearwardly-reacting spring-tongues h It provided with lips d located in said recesses and having their positions normally across the way for the cartridge-heads, and having the abutment members e e extended to the rear of the clip through said recess, and the diagonally opposite pair of forwardly-reacting spring-tongues i t', substantially as described.

3. In a cartridge-clip the combination with the holder A of trough shape having the inturned marginal lips a and having the recesses f f diagonally oppositely located at the ends of the holder, of the plate B of spring metal having the slits g 9 extending substantially longitudinally from its opposite ends whereby the diagonally opposite tongues h h and t 11 are produced, those i being forwardly while those 71 are rearwardly deflected, the latter being provided with the transverselyformed integral ears j bent inwardly and hav- Signed by me at Springfield, Massachusetts, in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

LUCIEN F. BRUCE.

WVitnesses:

WM. S. BELLOWS, MAGGIE N. BRUCE. 

